


After Coda

by darkmystress00



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-12 04:26:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3343619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkmystress00/pseuds/darkmystress00
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens if Beth really did survive the shot to the head, but she wakes up separated from her group and unable to remember certain parts of her life, namely one Daryl Dixon?</p>
<p>How will everyone cope when they see a ghost standing before them, but she isn't actually a ghost, and what will Daryl do when the one person he desperately needs to be near him can't remember a single thing about him? How will they cope and move forward when Beth is still trying piece together her past?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so I'm super blocked on Raising Judith. Every time I sat down to write, all I could picture was this story. So I figured I should write it out and get it out of my system. I hope you enjoy! This is my "fix-it" fic or my take on what should happen after Coda!

Beth blinked her eyes, and the first thing she noticed was she had a pounding headache and she was outside. The last thing she remembered was…she couldn’t remember _._ She sat up and let out a hiss of pain reaching up for her head, and came in contact with a rough gauze covering her forehead. She was in a makeshift camp, a fire smoldering lowly in the middle of the clearing. There were wires and rope tied around the camp, cans and noisemakers secured in the lines to create help guard against walkers. She heard something trigger the lines behind her, in her poor little makeshift tent and grabbed the first thing she could reach, a branch laying in the underbrush below the mound of rags she was laying on. Slowly she got to her feet, crouching low to stay hidden. She watched as a set of feet walked around the campsite, purposefully. This wasn’t a walker. She ambled backwards, trying to stay quiet, as her survival instincts kicked in. Before she could scamper back far enough, the legs turned and walked towards her tent, squatting down and showing a stranger’s face. “Don’t come any closer!” She cried and held the branch, bat-style, ready to strike any minute.

“Calm down sweetheart. If I wanted you dead, I’da left you where I found you.” His hands came up trying to calm her down, and get her to put the branch down. “Come on out. I ain’t got much, but you need to eat somethin’.” She looked at him like he wasn’t to be trusted, and he understood, given what she’d been through he wouldn’t trust anyone either. She studied him. He was dressed with a light tan jacket that held a scarf of a similar color up around his neck to keep him warm in the cooler weather. His dark skin stood out against the light of the fabric. He had a black cloth mask bunched up under his chin and a pair of, what looked like thin ski goggles, were attached. He looked like a bandit or a marauder making his way through the apocalypse.  “Look, I’m gonna back up and let you come on out, you can keep the branch if you want, if it makes you feel safer, but I give you my word I’m not gonna harm ya.” She tightened her grip on the branch as she watched him back up and make room for her to come out. She followed, never letting go of her branch. She looked around the campground and her weary eyes finally landed on him, anxious and nervous.

“Where am I, and who are you?”

“You are in my campsite, where you have been recovering from a pretty serious injury, and my name is Morgan.” Her hand touched the rough bandage on her head.

“Where is everybody else?” She was shifting on her feet, trying to decide whether or not to take off running or to stay put. He looked at her like he had no idea what she was talking about. “My daddy, Maggie, Rick, Carl?” She tried to search her memory, but the closest she could come to remembering was everyone secure in the prison. They’d just recovered from the virus that had taken a good many lives. What the hell was she doing out here? Why wasn’t she back at the prison with everyone else? Why wasn’t she with her daddy or Maggie or Glenn? Had something happened to the prison? Had she been injured trying to escape? A face flashed in her mind and she paused. She felt like she should know him. Dark brown shaggy hair, piercing blue eyes, gruff grunts and a crossbow. Why couldn’t she remember this person? She should remember him!

“You know Rick?” The man looked shocked, like she had just told him flying unicorns existed in a special colony on the moon. What the hell was going on?

“What’s it to you?” He gave her a small smile and motioned to the smoldering campfire where she could spy two cans of beans heating up in the hot coals. Slowly she lowered the branch, but she never dropped it. She looked around and then down at herself. She didn’t recognize the clothes she was wearing. Where the hell had this yellow, now dingy, shirt come from? Why did she have a cast on her arm? “What the hell happened?”

“You mean you don’t remember?” She looked up at him and shook her head slowly. “I found you, and you were alone, a nasty head wound. I wasn’t sure you were even alive until I noticed you were barely breathing.” It didn’t make sense.

“Where is the prison?”

“The prison? That’s miles away, and completely over run. It’s almost burnt down too. Was set on fire months back.” Beth’s eyes widened.

“No. You’re wrong.” She raised her branch again, her breathing coming fast. “I was just there. I was living there with my family. There is no way it’s burnt down, especially not ‘months ago’ when I was just there!” She was having a hard time understanding. Why couldn’t she remember? That was when she realized, it was the beginning of summer when everyone had gotten sick. She looked around, and noticed it was taking on the nip and chill of winter, or maybe the nip was just leaving. She couldn’t tell, but it most definitely wasn’t summer anymore. She was missing time somewhere. Her wide frantic eyes met his and she paled. “Wasn’t I just there?” Her voice was so little. “What happened? Why can’t I remember?” Morgan brought his hand back up, trying to soothe her.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to guess it has something to do with your head wound. Looks like you took a bullet to the forehead. You’re lucky to even be alive.” Her hand flew to the rough bandage on her forehead. “So you said you knew Rick…”

“Yeah. We were all living in the prison…something must have happened to make us scatter.” He eyed her.

“I’m on my way somewhere, somewhere safe. You could tag along, and maybe find your people there? Ever heard of the Alexandria Safe-Zone?”

~~

Daryl stayed silent, watching as the group moved around the woods. They’d lost Beth, and then they’d lost Tyreese mere days after, seventeen days to be exact, and frankly he was done losing people. He was done putting himself in a place where he could be hurt losing people. He was done giving a damn about anyone in this group. When Rick sidled up next to him, and started talking to him Daryl just put the darkest scowl on his face and stared ahead, not bothering to respond. It didn’t take long before Rick snapped his mouth closed and looked away from his friend.

Daryl grit his teeth against the sting as Rick fell back to talk with Glenn and then moved ahead to stand beside Michonne and Carl. This was what was supposed to happen. Daryl couldn’t afford friends. He couldn’t afford the pain that came when he lost them, and if he faced facts, he would _lose_ them. He’d lost everyone so far: his ma, Merle, Dale, Beth, and Tyreese (he knew there were more, but frankly his mind was just so fried he couldn’t think properly about the whole situation.) His ma had been hard, but she’d been so lost in a bottle by the time she’d died, he’d forgotten what it had been like to have her around. Merle had sucked, but in a way he’d already coped with it when he’d disappeared the first time. Killing him had been the hard part, but he’d shed his tears and moved on. Dale had sucked too. He’d cared about Dale too, and he’d had to put a bullet in his head to keep him from turning when that walker had made a meal of him.

Losing Beth had killed him. He’d gone from a full human being that believed maybe there were still good people in the world to an empty husk of the man he’d once been. He stopped believing anything good of anyone. It hurt less that way. He’d watched as her sunshine blonde hair had been smattered with blood. He’d watched as her small, but strong, frame had crumpled and collapsed against Dawn. He’d watched as she’d fallen and landed on the cold tile floor, here bright blue eyes closed forever. Without thinking, and without hesitating, Daryl had pulled his gun and put a bullet between that bitch’s eyes. How dare she hurt his Beth? How dare she snuff out the last ray of sunshine in this fucked up world where the dead walked amongst the living, threatening their very existence. How fucking dare she? Didn’t they have enough to worry about with the walkers everywhere? Now they had to worry about every human being as well? Shit, he should have known that after the whole Terminus thing had gone down.  Tyreese, hadn’t affected him that much. He and Ty weren’t that close. Ty was just the last body in a long line of bodies that Daryl was sick and fucking tired of crying over.

Daryl hefted his crossbow up, eyeing the tracks in the underbrush as they went. Some walkers had come through here, and there was no telling if they’d still be in the area. As if on cue they heard the gurgling hiss of a walker as it staggered through the trees, but before Daryl could release a bolt, Michonne’s katana separated the head from the rest of its rotting body. Daryl lowered his crossbow, making eye contact with Michonne as she sheathed he blade. He could see the glimmers of pain still in her eyes, not trying to hide it as much as he was. She’d actually been there when Tyreese had been bitten and had even cut off his arm to try to save him.

Daryl’s eyes glared daggers into the back of Noah’s head. He was a useless twit that had done nothing but get two of his people killed. First Beth, which had been enough to make Daryl hate him more than anything else on the face of this earth, and then Tyreese, which had made Daryl firmly plant this kid on his list. It was stupid, but Daryl had this list. It was a list of people that he could not, and would never, consider family. Someone he wouldn’t be able to trust no matter what happened. Something was off with this kid, and the fact that two people from their group had died because of him, well Daryl wasn’t one give third chances. Hell, normally he wasn’t one to give second chances, but after knowing Beth, he figured he owed it to her memory to at least try. And what had it gotten them? Another dead friend.

Beth’s face flashed in his mind and he felt his throat tighten up. Daryl would never admit to crying, at least not in front of others, but damn if the thought of Beth, with her sunny smile and blond hair floating in wisps around her face, didn’t cause his eyes to gather moisture and his throat to tighten uncomfortably. _“You’re gonna miss me so bad when I’m gone, Daryl Dixon.”_ Her delicate voice floated through his memory and his feet stopped moving on their own. Rick noticed, as did Michonne but before they could stop the group to question him about what was wrong he waved them off and looked down to the ground as his face darkened in anguish. Damned if she wasn’t right. He’d give anything to go back to that night and truly relish in being around her for one last time. Hell, he’d go back to the night he lost her and kick his own ass to keep him from opening the door to those walkers. He’d do anything to change the way shit had gone down, but he knew he couldn’t. Without word, he walked off, a good distance away from the group, secure in the knowledge that there was no way they could hear him.

He stumbled as his eyes glassed over with moisture (there was no way he’d call them tears) and went down to his knees. He crossbow landed with a thud in the damp leaves and underbrush next to him. His hands rested in front of him as he squeezed his eyes closed, and took deep breaths. He needed to cope. He needed deal. But it would have been so much easier to cope with the fact that she was gone if they’d been able to bury her damn body! Now she was rotting in a car somewhere on a highway because they’d been overrun with a mega-herd of walkers! They couldn’t even honor her by burying her! They’d had to take that jackass back to Richmond where Ty had met his end because Noah had sworn that was what Beth had planned to do when she got out of Grady. A fresh wave of tears and pain assaulted him. There was no way that was true. Right? Beth, his Beth, sunshine personified, wouldn’t have given up on everyone to go with the kid she’d just met. No there was no way she would have given up on everyone, not her sister, not Carl, not Rick. She wouldn’t have given up on anyone.

His mind screamed and he shook as he tried to calm himself. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t give up on everyone else. Nah, she knew they were alive and would never stop looking for them, but that wasn’t what had hurt the most. Daryl knew, deep down in the root of his soul that there was no way in hell Beth would have given up on him and just followed this kid blindly wherever he led her. Not the Beth he knew. She’d have come looking for him. She would never have stopped looking because if there was one thing he knew she was sure of it was that _he,_ Daryl Dixon, would be the last one standing. She wouldn’t have given up on that. She would have searched for him, just like he’d searched for her and they would have found each other, but now she was dead and gone and he couldn’t even lay her body to rest and just… _fuck._ He slammed a fist down into the dead twigs and leaves before him, reveling in the feeling of twigs and detritus cutting his knuckles and making him feel something more than this damn hollow feeling that haunted him.

It took him a moment before he was able to swallow the tears and get his breathing back under control. He couldn’t stay gone for too long before the group would start looking for him and he didn’t want them to find him like this. They already worried about him. He hardly talked, he mainly grunted, he didn’t like to be around anyone anymore and he was pushing them away when they did reach out. He could deal with the anger and frustration his actions now were causing, but he’d be damned if he would stand there and feel their pity. There was no way anyone would see him cry. He stood, brushing his pants off with his hand and noticed his knuckles were bleeding, not much, but enough to make him stand out like a beacon to any walker who could smell him. He hissed a cuss word under his breath and picked up his crossbow before making his way silently back to the tail end of their group, following their footprints on the ground easily.

If anyone noticed his hand, no one commented, whether or not it was because they respected him enough to give him private time and keep it private, or if they were just too damn scared to ask him, he’d never be sure. But in that moment he was just glad they’d all taken to ignoring his existence as much as possible. They still cared about him, he could feel that much, but they weren’t about to poke at the angry animal lurking under the surface.

He needed to let it all out, to cope, but Daryl Dixon was a private man, and there was anything but privacy when they were living on the road.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the story continues!

Beth moved around the forest, her steps light and making no sound. Morgan sounded like a stomping elephant next to her and she couldn’t help but grit her teeth. She couldn’t understand how she knew how to walk quietly, or how she could pick out different sets of tracks in the mud and underbrush. It wasn’t like she had ever hunted or tracked before, but for some reason these prints were clear as day. She glanced down and bit the inside of her lip. Along with the animal tracks, she could easily see the sets of walker tracks they were following, and she could tell they were closing in on them. Hopefully they’d be able to take them down. Her hands itched for a weapon. After she’d put down the branch at the camp, two days ago, she’d regrettably found she didn’t have any weapons on her. Morgan had apologized and said she hadn’t had a weapon on her when he’d found her. She’d understood and he’d handed her a pistol, which she had dutifully tucked into the top of her pants, but she knew she was missing another weapon. She felt like she should have had a blade or something quiet.  
  
“So…” She started off slowly, “how did you find me exactly?”  
  
“You were in a car.” Morgan mumbled behind his black cloth mask, and when she waited patiently he glanced over and realized she wanted more. “Theres been this herd, like a mega herd. Hundreds of walkers moving together en masse.” He scanned the area around them. “I’ve run into them once or twice. Anyway, I was moving up a back road and it looked they’d moved through the area. I figured it was safe enough to scavenge through the cars. I popped open one of them and there you were. At first I thought you were dead but you sucked in a shallow breath and I could see your eyes flickerin’ under all the blood. I wrapped up your head and cleaned you as best I could, and then slung you over my back. You were out for three solid days before you woke up at the camp.” Beth was quiet as she listened.  
  
“Why’d you bring me along?” She knew she was a liability and a burden when she was out. He didn’t have to bring her. He could have left her on her own and not bothered with all the trouble.  
  
“Figured the world was crap enough as it is…couldn’t lose the last bit of my humanity and let you die in that car. If you were gonna make it, you shouldn’t wake up by yourself.”  
  
She was silent as he explained. Before she could respond the gurgling moan of a walker sounded next to  her and she whipped around and saw the thing ambling slowly through the trees, arms stretching out to reach for her. She watched it, waiting for the familiar fear and panic to well up inside her, but it never came. Instead she was filled with a sense of purpose, like she’d handled walkers many times before. God, she wished for the millionth time, she wished she could remember that missing time. She studied the walker and noticed it used to be a man. His dark blond hair was dingy and filled with rotten blood and dirt. His face, which Beth couldn’t really tell for sure, might have been attractive before he’d become one of these disgusting things. He was taller than Beth and she was surprised to see a face, dark blue eyes framed by dark brown, shaggy, hair, flash before her eyes. When she refocused on the walker, all traces of the face she should have known were gone and she was filled with an empty sadness, that made her want to scream and stamp her foot. That sadness was replaced by a swift anger that she couldn’t quite explain. She let her body do what felt natural and was surprised to see herself crouch low before its rotting body, a leg coming out to kick at the knee and she smiled to herself as it stumbled down. Without pause her hands scooped down and picked up a branch and jammed it sideways into his temple. She gave a violent twist of her hand and felt the branch begin to creak and give until she let go and the walker’s body collapsed to the ground. She turned to look back at Morgan, who had pulled his glasses away from his face, and his cloth mask down under his chin again, and noticed his shocked and impressed face.  
  
“Figured the gun would make too much noise.” She panted out, the adrenaline making her feel excited and eager to keep going. Morgan quirked an eyebrow.  
  
“Where’d you learn that girl?”  
  
“I have no idea…” She shrugged a shoulder and continued walking, the pistol still sitting tucked in her jeans only a quick tug away from being free and readily available. He made a mental note to give her a blade the next time they found one. She was really adept with a blade and he was going to give her every opportunity to protect herself.  
  
They walked for the rest of the night, stopping only when Morgan tried to take down a rabbit that they could eat. It had gotten away, and Beth couldn’t explain why, but she knew it would have before Morgan had even lifted the gun for the shot. He’d been too loud, breaking too many branches and the rabbit had scampered away just as the shot rang out. The shot had effectively scared every other possible game away so they’d pushed forward trying to see where they would end up by night fall.  
  
They’d found a small shack, mostly rotten and falling down, tucked in the middle of the forrest that would work for the night. They’d alternate who would be on watch, and Beth had started, not feeling particularly tired. As she looked around at the quiet woods around her a rumbling voice rolled around her head, Is that what you think of me? and just as quickly her voice floated through the darkness. You’re gonna be the last man standing…She could see his dark blue eyes piercing her with their stare. She could almost read the message in his eyes, the message that said he didn’t want to be the last man standing, at least if she wasn’t there beside him. She wanted to reach out to him. She wanted to promise that she wasn’t going anywhere. She wanted to remember him dammit! Her voice flitted through her mind again. We should burn it down…and then there was the glimmer of flames in her mind. A raised set of middle fingers, hers and his. Who the hell was he? What the hell was going on? She cracked a small smile, maybe if she ever found him again, he’d help her remember. Maybe he could make it all make sense again. Her eyes focused on the small smolder of the mound of ashes in the corner of the cabin, surrounded by rocks to keep the fire from engulfing the entire building. Even though it was dilapidated, it was still where they were resting their heads for the night.  
  
Later, as Beth lay down for her time to sleep, Morgan sitting watch at the only window, Beth would hear her voice once more flitting through her head. What changed your mind? Oh…  
  
~~~  
Daryl stared at the barn in front of him. He’d told someone in the group (honestly, he was such a mass of pain inside he was having a hard time really focusing on who was around him anymore) that he was off to find water, but he needed a minute. Things were looking bleak, and without Beth here, without her ever present voice of reason telling everyone to have faith and not to give up, that everything would be alright, the mood in the group was stifling and he was having a hard time breathing. He’d stumbled upon this barn and instantly his brain filled with that night. From the moment they arrived at that moonshine shack, until they burned it down played in his mind.  
  
He’d been such an ass to her when they’d been playing that damn game. He’d let where they were draw him back into his damn past and make himself feel every inch the piece of white trash he’d always believed himself to be. She hadn’t meant it personal and had even tried to show him that good people make mistakes. Her soft voice tripped through his mind I just meant…not even the drunk tank? I mean my daddy was in the drunk tank a couple of times. Yeah, she’d tried to make him feel better, but that had even made it worse. He’d cared for Hershel and felt his death extremely deeply. He’d felt helpless and useless since he’d just watched the eldest Greene get taken down by the Governor and his people, and then put down by Michonne. He should have done something and he hadn’t and she’d just compared his greasy dirty ass to her father who was a strong beacon of what a man really should be. Every inch the polar opposite that Daryl was or ever would be. He’d lashed out at her, yelling and cussing and being obscene, not caring if any walkers heard them and came. He’d welcomed the fun.  
  
When she’d broken down his barriers, and helped him let all that pain out, it’d been painful, and like a flood. Once it started it wasn’t stopping until it was all out, but his Beth hadn’t judged him, she’d wrapped her arms around him and comforted him in his time of pain. Now she wasn’t here. She wasn’t here to help him through this pain. She was the reason there was pain. He hadn’t done anything again. He’d let another Greene die and hadn’t done a damn thing to stop it. Sure he’d put a damn bullet in that bitch’s head, but that was just a gut instinct and reflex made to combat the ache that had started when Beth went down. Coping with the pain of her dying…that was something he wasn’t prepared for.  
  
He’d come to think of Beth as the last ray of hope in this God forsaken world. Now she was gone and he struggled trying to hold on to hope. He knew if Beth was here, she’d have wanted him to keep hoping for something better, but she wasn’t here. She was gone. How could he hope when the person who helped him hope was gone? Daryl pulled out a cigarette, staring at that damn barn, took a couple puffs and continued to think. His mind drifted back to the farm house and the first time he’d really noticed her. It was after he’d shot her mom in the face, and she’d had to watch as her mother and brother, now both walkers, get put down by strangers she didn’t know along with other friends and neighbors she had known. She’d felt so hopeless and had tried to take her own life. He’d seen her before, but she’d always been like a knick knack in the house…something that was there but never really analyzed. When she’d hurt herself he’d felt like she was a spoiled child that was having a hard time coping with the ugly truth now that her fairy tale was ruined. She’d proved herself though, after that, time and time again.  
  
He took a draw off his cigarette before plucking it from his lips and looking at it. The pain of losing her welled up inside him, and he felt like he was choking on it. He felt like his body was weighing down, melting into the world and if he didn’t do something he’d never be able to get up and move and get through this. He’d never remember what it felt like to feel anything other than this choking, stifling pain in his chest. He took the lit cigarette and placed the smoldering end into his hand, almost sighing as the sizzle of his skin and the scream of pain shooting through his hand drew his attention away from the internal pain in his chest. He sucked in another breath, dropped the cigarette and then touched the burn, reveling in the scorched feeling and the searing pain that continued to throb through his limb as he toyed with the burn. It wasn’t a solution, but damn did it help distract. That was when he let the tears come. They came, they flowed, and he didn’t try to stop them. No one would see him and at this point he needed to let it out. People would notice if he started coming out the woods with new burns and scars and he didn’t want to have to share. He was trying to distance after all. He didn’t want them to care about him, but he knew they did and if they noticed they’d become concerned and it would only make matters worse.  
  
~~~  
Daryl sat inside the barn listening to Rick talk to the group about this new comer who for some reason seemed to know who they were. He’d “stumbled” upon Maggie and Sasha outside, and had asked to see the leader. That wouldn’t have been so weird…but then he’d named Rick and things had gotten down right weird.  
  
“I don’t trust him.” Rick blurted to the group, as Maggie and Sasha watched Aaron away from the group.  
  
“But what if he’s telling the truth?” Carl piped up. Rick shot the boy a look but he wouldn’t back down. “I’m serious. What if there is a place? What if this Alexandria Safe Zone is real?” He looked around the group, his eyes landing on Michonne. “We might be able to find a place where we can have something better…instead of just making it.” His words mirrored Michonne’s words in Richmond. He looked to Daryl. “Don’t you think Beth would have wanted us to at least try?” It was a weak attempt to appeal to the last shred of hope he had in him, but damn if it didn’t work. Daryl looked around and then met Rick’s eyes.  
  
“It can’t be any worse than Richmond.” He grumbled.  
  
“And what if it’s just like Terminus?” Rick wasn’t having any of it. “I won't put our family at risk. I wont put Judith at risk like that.”  
  
“And what if it is a real place? A place where Judith can grow up with other kids, around others and live somewhat a normal life?” Daryl countered. “Really, how much more at risk can she be than she is here? I mean hell we could have all died from the storm last night, or even them walkers gettin’ in could have gotten her. She’s at risk no matter what…but stayin’ out here. We know the only outcome that can come from that.” He looked to Carl. “This could be worth a try.” Rick grit his teeth. “Beth would have wanted to try. She was tough and she never woulda given up hope that there was somethin’ better’n this our there.”  
  
Rick looked around the group, noticing that many of the faces staring back at him seemed to be wavering from resoundingly against giving this guy a chance, to maybe, just maybe believing there might be something better out there. “Hell, there might be someone we know there.” Daryl finished quickly. “He did know your name…” Rick glanced over to Aaron. He was too clean cut, too put together, to be making it on his own, or even in a group without a stable environment. Maybe he was telling the truth, but was it worth it? Putting everyone at risk for some unknown place, was it worth it? He looked at Carl and then at Judith and sighed. Of course it was worth it. Anything that could possibly be better for them would always be worth it. Rick nodded once before going back over to the stranger.  
  
“So…Aaron. Tell us about Alexandria.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've never read the comics and I don't really know what to expect of ASZ. I'm kind of going to make it up from here on out...I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think?
> 
> Believe it or not this story does have a plot...but it only gets interesting once they reach ASZ and there is a reunion. I'm getting there, I swear. =]
> 
> As always reviews and feedback are greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They have made it to Alexandria.

Beth awoke, the sun streaming in through her window, and the blanket pulled up over her shoulder. She still for a moment, trying to remember how she got here, and then it all flooded back. Waking up at the camp with Morgan, killing walkers, slowly but surely making their way to Alexandria. She had dared to hope that there was such a place and when they had found it she’d nearly cried with relief. After being checked out by a doctor their first night there she’d asked everyone if they’d seen her group. Her sister Maggie, Glenn, Rick…she’d been met with sad, apologetic looks that told her that her family wasn’t there. She’d met with some one higher up, she couldn’t remember his name at the moment, but she’d told her story, or the pieces she remembered, to Aaron.  
  
He’d looked interested and nodded to the nameless guy. “There’s a group of people making their way in this direction…maybe it is your family.” She didn’t want to hope, but something in her screamed that it had to be. “I’ll scope them out and see what’s going on.” She’d hugged Aaron, just out of sheer reflex.  
  
“Thank you.” Beth left that room with an extra skip in her step at the idea of getting to see her sister and daddy again. Seeing Glenn and Rick and Carl again would be good too, but she missed her dad and that was the biggest ray of sunshine in her day. She was going to get to see him again.  
  
That was a week ago. She’d had her head checked many times and was pleased to find she was no longer bleeding and was healing quite nicely. She’d have a scar but it wouldn’t be big, and it wouldn’t be dark once the scar tissue settled down. She no longer needed to wear a bandage on her head and she was thankful for that. The rough gauze had started to get itchy and she knew that the dirt on the bandage wasn’t going to be good for her wound if it was still open.  
  
Today was her last check up to make sure she was at 100% and she was excited to get it over with. She stood from her bed, stretching and arching her aching muscles. It had been a long time since she’d slept in a bed on the regular and her muscles were bunched and strained from months of sleeping on the hard compacted ground. Slowly they’d been loosening the longer she slept in an actual bed. She pulled on her boots, still not feeling comfortable to strip down any more than just her shoes. She may have been in a safe zone but she had nightmares of swarms of walkers overtaking the walls and she was caught unable to get out. With a last yawn she pulled her fingers through her long blond hair, her fingertips brushing the little nub of a scar that was hidden in her hair, and pulled it up into a ponytail. She trudged out the door and made her way to the doctor.  
  
She sat quietly as the doctor looked her over and started asking her questions. questions she’d been asked time and time again. Who was she?  
  
“I’m Beth Greene from Georgia.”  
  
How did she come to be here?  
  
“I was living on my farm when everything went to hell. We met some people and when the farm got over run we all escaped together. We made it to a prison in Georgia where we cleared out a cell block and lived.”  
  
After that?  
  
“I don’t know…”  
  
Where did her scars come from? She knew the first one, the second, as always, was a clear until the prison, and then from there it was blank. She looked down to her wrist, fidgeting with her bracelets before she stared at the doctor, a hard edge to her eyes. “Are you going to ask me these questions every time I come in?” When the doctor nodded she sighed, “Are you going to keep making me come back until I remember?”  
  
“No. You may never get your memory back. You’ll still have to do check ups once a month for the next couple months, but you wont have to come in daily or even weekly anymore.” Beth smiled and gave a quick curt nod. She knew that. She had accepted that she may never remember. The thing she was antsy about was going out. She needed to search for her family, Maggie, Glenn, her daddy. She knew it was a long shot, but she couldn’t help but hope. If anyone could hold on to hope it was her. “Alright. I’m officially signing off and calling you fit for duty.” The doctor looked a bit sheepish. “Well, fit for duty as it were. We’re not really enlisting at the moment.” Beth rolled her eyes.  
  
“So I’m free to go?” The doctor wrote down some notes before giving her a nod. “Thank you for everything.” She said her voice soft. She vaguely heard some shouts and calls from the walls and gates before she stood up and made her way outside. She turned up the street to make her way back to her home but a scuffle and commotion stopped her in her tracks. She turned on her heel and made her way to the gate to see what all the hubbub was about. A young lady, a little older than herself was standing in the street watching. “Alice.” Beth called, and the girl turned and looked at her. “What’s going on?” Before Alice could comment Beth’s head whipped back to look at the gate as she heard her name gasped out in a very familiar voice.    
“B-Beth? Is that…are…you’re alive?”  
  
“Oh my god… _Maggie_?”  
  
~~~  
The moment Daryl lit eyes on the blond now currently being wrapped in the arms of her sister he was pushing his way through to the front of the group, pulled by an invisible string. When she’d looked at him, blank faced, and side stepped him like he was trying to pass her he staggered and almost came to his knees. She’d offered him a tentative, small smile and then moved past him to Maggie who was doing her best impression of keening seal as she simultaneously cried and gasped for air all the while reaching for Beth. He’d felt cold and empty as he watched her with the group, hugging Maggie, Glenn, Carol, Rick and Carl, and then stared blankly at Michonne, Sasha, Abe, Eugene, Rosita, Noah and finally even himself. They’d all felt the sting (Abe, Eugene and Rosita the least since they’d never really met her) of coming to the realization that _she didn’t remember them_.  
  
Rather than drag out the awkwardness that was going to follow she’d led everyone to her place, which was small, but had enough for her. They’d find a place for everyone, she’d assured them. She’d been startled when Judith had let out a squeal and Carl had handed the baby over to her like it was second nature. She’d cooed at the girl and looked up to Carl. “Where did you find this precious girl?” Everyone had shifted uncomfortably.  
  
“She’s my sister.” Beth’s eyes flew to Carl and then to Rick who looked stricken and sad. “You-you don’t remember her? When mom died…you practically raised her.” It was Beth’s turn to look stricken.  
  
“Lori died?” Her voice cracked and she looked around the group, noticing for the first time that Lori was, in fact, absent from the faces around her. She gently handed Judith back to Rick, her heart aching as the child fussed a little. She looked around. “I think it’s time for introductions.” With that she sat everyone down and made with the introductions. She’d introduced herself to each person that she didn’t remember and waited patiently for each person to choke out their name. When she got him, her big blue eyes shining at him, a smile on her lips, hand outstretched as if to shake his and she said, “Hello. I’m Beth Greene…” He couldn’t muster up his voice. He’d stared at her, almost willing her to remember. His eyes searched her face, studying her and landing firmly on the reddish purple scar, more of a dot really, that stood out on her forehead. The bullet hole. It hadn’t killed her, but it had done damage enough to make her forget. Forget almost everyone. Forget _him_. Her smile faltered and her hand dropped.  
  
She was looking him straight in the eyes. “I’ve met you before haven’t I?” Her voice was soft, quiet and sad. He gave a jerky nod and watched as her eyes filled up with tears. She looked around, raising her chin before asking one, heartbreakingly lonely question, “Who else did I forget?” She watched as Michonne, Sasha, and Noah all raised their hands and sucked in a breath. She gave a nod. “And the baby right? I forgot her too, right?” Rick didn’t want to nod but he did, knowing that to keep that information from her would be a lie. Her legs wobbled and she could feel them getting weak beneath her.  
  
“And Bob, and Tyreese,” Sasha added in a low empty voice.  
  
“And Mika and Lizzie.” Carol whispered. Beth looked around, her eyes filling with tears that she wouldn’t let fall. So much she had forgotten. So much she had missed. She looked around for her daddy and made a strangled sound in her throat.    
“Where’s Daddy?” Maggie tensed when that question floated across the empty space in the room. Everyone looked from Beth to Maggie and back, not daring to breathe. When Maggie met Beth’s eyes she couldn’t hold it in anymore. Her legs gave out and she was on the ground tears flowing freely from her eyes. “No!” She shouted. “No! No! No!” She was rocking back and forth, trying to cope with the new information she was hearing. Her eyes squeezed tight as images of her father flashed before her eyes. She felt arms wrap around her, shushing and comforting sounds being whispered just above her head. She knew it wasn’t Maggie, and registered it wasn’t Rick but in that moment she didn’t care. She clutched herself to the chest currently holding her, the smell of leather and cigarettes and dirt and sweat filling her nose and working to calm her down. She looked up at the face of the man she felt like she should know, the man who had looked at her like he’d _wanted_ her to know him, and she knew deep down that she wanted to know him too.  
  
When she calmed down enough to at least breathe and not feel like she was having a panic attack, Daryl loosened his arms from around her and she looked around. “I-I don’t remember what happened after the prison.” She looked to Sasha, “And some parts of that are pretty fuzzy too. I…I don’t remember a lot of you and what happened but I want to.” She’d never really cared too much about getting her memory back. Her eyes scanned the group again, settling on Daryl’s dark blue ones just above her own face. She had wanted to get her memory back, but after so long of not having it, she was coming to terms with the idea that she might never remember. Now, staring up into Daryl’s blue eyes, she knew she couldn’t leave her memories forgotten. She didn’t know what she could do, but she’d try anything.  
  
Daryl stared down at Beth as he watched the determination seep through her and settle into her very soul. How was he going to deal with all these feelings welling up inside of him for someone who couldn’t even remember his damn name. She said she couldn’t remember and that she wanted to and she would try anything, but was there really anything you could do for a gun shot to the head? He wanted to help her remember, the time they’d spent together in the woods, teaching her how to track and use his crossbow. He wanted to help her remember how she had changed him and given back his hope. He wanted her to remember their time in the funeral home, and the feast of pigs feet, and the ‘there ain’t no jukebox,’ and the ‘it does matter.’ He wanted her to remember the ‘Oh…’ that had been like a lightening bolt between them, illuminating so much of the good between them in this world filled with grime and gore and bad.  
  
He didn’t know what he could do, but he knew if he could do something for her, he would. Always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Morgan is around, he will come into play the next chapter or two. I hope everyone likes this story. As always please read and review. All feedback is greatly appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> there will be more, but this story is so challenging for me because I'm trying to get everything as accurately as I can. If there is anything you see that is blatantly wrong, please let me know so I can go back and fix it. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! I love you all!


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